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came skating into the medical bay at the old Omni with a split lip, advising the physician to “sew it up.” The doctor reached for his injection needle to deaden the offended tissue. “To hell with that,” the player advised. As soon as the doctor stitched him up, the player, wiped blood off his mouth, skated out and advised: “Don’t go anywhere Doc, the guy that split my lip will be in here needing your help any minute.”

Collegiate hockey is nothing of the sort, but my guess is that when the players woke up Sunday morning stiff joints and sore muscles prevailed.

Jack Crowley, a onetime dean at UGA, has been allowing that the Ice Dawgs are a great attraction, which means Danny and Paul Cramer, President and CEO are angling to make the new arena the place to be in Athens after Sanford Stadium and Stegman Coliseum.

The Ice Dawgs are now ranked No. 2 in the country and could eventually play for the national championship, which will take place in Philadelphia in March. They have won several SECHC championships and individual honors would fill the Classic Center itself if it were turned into a trophy room. There have been 42 Academic All-America selections. Even though this is a physical game, collegiate hockey is not all brawn.

The new arena, which will seat 5,500, is coming about via SPLOST funding and a bond issue which will allow for more and bigger capacity for conventions. The day will soon come when there will be a hockey contest one night, a resonating concert the next night and an overflowing convention the third night. This facility will move Athens to the head of the class for a city of its size.

The economic impact of this facility will surpass $30 million dollars a year for the local economy. It will add 90,000 room nights annually to the local motel budgets. In other words, the Ice Dawgs are not only a hot attraction, they are the face of a new economy coming our way—and remain a classic attraction for a Classic City.